Hi All, How can i make the code below to run in background (windows xp) until the command ends?

The command is similar to "perl main.pl a b c d e". If i put this command at #child place, the script (main.pl) runs until it terminates but the html page (#parent place) is only loaded after the script ends. I want to display the html page as soon as the script starts.

If i change the code between #child and #parent fields, the html is displayed instantly but the script (main.pl) is killed and is not executed to the end. 
use warnings;
use strict;

$| = 1; # need either this or to explicitly flush stdout, etc.
# before forking
print "Content-type: text/plain\n\n";
print "Going to start the fork now\n";
if ( !defined(my $pid = fork())) {
print STDERR "fork error\n";
exit(1);
} elsif ($pid == 0) {
# child
close(STDOUT);close(STDIN);close(STDERR);
exec('perl main.pl a b c d e'); # lengthy processing
} else {
# parent
print "forked child \$pid= $pid\n";
exit 0;
}
__END__

[download]

This script main.pl takes at least 5 minutes running. This is the reason that i can't wait the script terminates.

My main.pl script will receive a huge file from a form and parse the file into a database. After this process, some configurations from the database that the user has just populated will appear on screen to the user..

Thanks!

In reply to Exec command running in background after a fork by eduardoll

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